The Impact Challenge.
If you are keen to take part in the Impact Challenge in 2024 please register your interest below:
We are also looking for organisations that would like to get involved and support young people in their region to take part in the challenge. This could include getting a group together to do the challenge, support with grants, offering a space and access to the internet for a group to meet, or supporting with mentoring and coaching.
Over the last 6 months we have been supporting young people across the motu with micro-grants, workshops, inspirational speakers, mentoring and resources to help them bring their communities together to explore solutions for climate justice and community resilience.
We are proud to share some of the incredible mahi that has formed part of the Impact Challenge:
Y4CA (Youth 4 Climate Action) - a new youth led initiative was established in Wellington.
A young actor in Wellington experimented with representing the El Niño-Southern Oscillation climate phenomena through theatre.
Ōpōtiki will have a community compost and flood resilience initiative led by rangatahi.
Disabled rangatahi will have accessibility to climate strikes in Tāmariki Makaurau.
Pasifika youth in Warkworth feel more empowered to talk about how climate change is affecting the islands of their heritage.
The traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of the Tuvaluan people across the Pacific will be recorded in an audiovisual compilation of stories and experiences.
Youth in Whangarei learnt about good waste management and effective recycling.
“For me, the Impact Challenge was an open door to educate and raise awareness about the impacts of climate change on our Pacific Islands. Many of the Pasifika students learned the significance of this topic which led them to think of ways to mitigate and cater to this problem. I think that’s what made me enjoy the Impact Challenge a lot - to see more minds merge and create better solutions”
Ioanna Corrie, Mahurangi College workshop leader
“I learned that we have a lot of students in Tai Tokerau who care about the environment and want to do their part for climate action, but they don't know where to start. They feel overwhelmed by different paths of environmental action and the overbearing doom that the possibilities of our future climate hold. Therefore, I created a turangawaewae activity. This was for students to first connect with their personal connection to the environment and choose a 'special place' that they would like to connect. From here, we workshopped which part of the environment that place belonged to, following the environmental domains represented in the Matariki cluster. I found that by having young people create a personal connection to their environment, it helps them understand why they care and for them to take a direction with the action they wish to take.”
Cezanne Hamilton, Whangarei workshop leader
“This workshop was an amazing opportunity to connect with people that share a passion of wanting to care for our environment and keep Papatūānuku safe and healthy, and I’m so grateful that I was able to join in on such an event.”
Swadha Makhija, Wellington Y4CA workshop participant
Communities have benefited from the learning, growth and development of the young leaders who shared their knowledge, encouraged conversations around climate justice and community resilience and have workshopped local sustainable solutions.
We also awarded prizes of $1,000 to young people (14 - 30) to run a project, event or campaign aligned with our co-created vision for climate justice (below).
Design by Caleb Ihe of Kanuehi Creative
Impact Prizes
We had 22 applications and these prizes have been decided by a participatory process which includes the applicants. We ended up awarding four prizes at the Impact Awards in November.
The winners are:
Moana Tasi Project - a programme that seeks to address a wide array of environmental sociocultural issues through community capacity-building across Pacific communities in four areas: resilience, advocacy, environmental stewardship, and cultural connection using an audiovisual compilation of stories and experiences of Tuvaluan people across the Pacific that will highlight their traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) related to marine resources, attitudes toward potential statelessness due to sea-level rise, and climate change.
Fridays for Future Tāmaki Makaurau - funding to increase accessibility to Climate Strikes for disabled young people including NZSL interpreters for each climate strike and a minivan plus cover parking fees so people with limited mobility can accompany the strike as well as co-create a resource with other disabled people that can be applied to other strike/protest/march settings in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Kia Whakawhirinaki Rangatahi - Community Compost and Flood Resilience Initiatives in Ōpōtiki.
Banaban Human Rights Defenders - climate justice workshops catered for Banaban youth in Auckland to equip them in campaigning skills, engagement, and human rights knowledge to fight phosphate mining on their Island.